More about Arcata

This town has a community forest where we wandered for hours today. It was established in the 1950s to promote education and recreation, I guess there is some logging to give the park financial support.We saw no sign of logging. The forest was wintry and fine today. The redwoods cast a deep shade that was full of the color of redwood's copper bark and the dark emerald of sword ferns. Big leaf maples' still held some yellow leaves that hadn't fallen since Autumn. Wild fungi were everywhere- gold and crimson waxy caps, pale gray oyster mushrooms and yellow/tan sulfur tufts growing on dead branches, and many more. The only sounds were the ravens' distant "Awks!" and glockenspiel rumbling from the many streams. A fine day.

Evening was unique. There is a theater that shows '50s science fiction along with old previews, shorts, etc. The movie is free if you have food, and they make  very fine samosas. We saw previews of "Earth Vs. the Flying  Saucers", "It Came From Beneath the Sea", "I Married a Gorilla" (no, I am not making that up) and other oddities. The feature, "War of the Worlds" from the 50s had its moments, but the sound track was hard to hear, and we tired of the battle scenes so we left early. But it had been a strange and interesting evening.

Again, this is an interesting town, a forward looking place. It's slow between the holidays, good chance we'll pass through here again. On to Oregon tomorrow.